Gearbuds

Spoiler Warning: you know those sorta’ groany reaction videos you see all over YouTube these days? At about the 30 minute mark this becomes one of those, Gearbuds Podcast style.

This week the dudes go Full Boomer with a review and deep dive into the new Peter Jackson-helmed Beatles documentary, Get Back, or as we’re calling it Get Buds. In this Dave’s Doc about a Dave’s Doc we spend ample time nerding over all of the Fender, Vox, Hofner, Gibson, Neumann, AKG, & EMI gear, digging into each episode individually, covering some issues the documentary omitted, and obvy providing our own *spicy* takes.

Also discussed: Spotify Wrapped 2021, Guitar Slip No More, Moog Animoog Z, hacking away at the back of an old Les Paul, handling auditions, and tells for failing electrolytic capacitors.

Take the beans.

Happy Monday-after-a-long-weekend, American friends. Feeling fat and tired, maybe a little seasonally sad? Just us? Cool cool.

Anywho we’ve got a doozy for you this week - Dave bought a mysterious new pedal! For those keeping score, your buddy has been on a bass fuzz synth octave ToneQuest (tm), and this week we dive deep into a contender for this role, the Italian-made Meridian Syntave. Somehow we also had the time to dig into the surprising results and a major turning of the tides via Reverb’s best seller gear lists of 2021.

Also discussed: Justin Chancellor’s signature Dunlop Crybaby wah, Howlin’ Wolf, a free plugin from Baby Audio, good buddies PTD Unlimited and Cindy from Carmine Street, and Radiohead’s new video game.

It’s an even number that sounds odd.

“With your feet on the air and your head on the ground…”

In this week’s particularly singsong-y episode the buds soar into the oft confusing matter of safely flying with your guitar. We read the federal law and FAA regulations so you don’t have to, and provide all the tips you need for safe and stress-free air travel with your prized instrument.

Also discussed: Fender’s affordable Acoustasonic Player Telecaster, Earthworks’ ETHOS broadcast mic, Apple’s new self-service repair program, creepy Amazon One scanning, Brass Against getting pissy, Studio 666, and Rick Kelly’s Carmine Street Guitars.

Let me smell your palms.

Rat fur. Tolex. Tuck and roll. Your amps and cabinets are covered in this stuff, but have you ever thought about why? 

Who cares?! Gearbuds cares ya dingus! This week we dive deep into the sometimes off-putting world of rat fur, try and get to the bottom of where it began, and weigh its pros and cons.

Also discussed: mini amp heads from Bogner, Diesel, and Friedman, all-hog Les Paul Customs, Limp Bizkit still sucks, Randy Rhoads and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Abbey Road’s anniversary, Radiohead’s free video game, tragedy at Travis Scott’s Astroworld, Coltrane going platinum, Noble & Cooley drums, and Steely Dan’s Aja.

I like to pop once in a while.

*Shakes fist at daylight savings time*

This week was an absolute time warp, what better way to celebrate than getting into cerebral and esoteric theories and ideas underlying the practice of investing? The buds talk through the (seemingly) simple question - are instruments good investments?

Also discussed: lil’ blueberry meat, Fender smashing guitars, getting shot for playing guitar, The Sparks Brothers, N64, Earthquaker’s new Boris fuzz pedal Hizumitas, and signature Gibson guitars for Jim James and Adam Jones.

Could be beans in there.

Whoa. It’s November. Weird, right?

This week the buds effectively close out spooky month, this time with a Harry Nilsson ghost story and Ace Frehley getting zapped on stage. And since this is in fact a gear show for musicians, we also stick to what we know and get deep into the world of knobs, pots, and potentiometers (spoiler: those are the same thing).

Also discussed: chasing a vintage White Falcon, EHX’s new Intelligent Harmony Machine pedal, CME visits, Nathaniel Rateliff’s Reverb shop and Princetons, Mannequin Pussy, Les Paul’s number 1 guitar, and the legend of Ozzy Osbourne.

I’m auditioning for your friendship.

In case you were wondering - no, this episode is not as epic as that longboi from last week. Phew.

On top of adding some real science to our bro science courtesy of Professor Steve, this week we’re sticking with spooky season and exploring mysterious radio signals from deep outer space. The dudes also dive into a whole mess of new Fender with a trio of releases including the Chicago Music Exchange exclusive Pacific Peach custom color Jazzmaster, the Violinmaster, and Kurt Cobain signature Jag-Stang reissue.

Also discussed: Gearbuds listeners in the wild, Dave getting scammed on Reverb/the virtues of PayPal, too much Macca news, Russian Circles gear theft, and finding inspiration in the new  Velvet Underground doc.

“Your podcast is boring as shit.”

Don’t act so surprised; we tend to do things a bit on the nose.

This week we’re leaning into spooky season and talking about some morbid shiz - musicians being killed by their gear. With Keith Relf from the Yardbirds as perhaps the most famous example, we delve into some shocking territory while providing tips for staying safe when poking around. That said, sometimes you should probably just leave it to the pros.

Also discussed: Google’s new built-in tuner and song finding feature, new flagship loopers from Boss, digging deep into going direct and the all-in-one guitar amp and monitor from Amonito, Blackstar’s new tube-based pedals, native advertising on Reverb, eBay updates, Tony Iommi fossils, Randy Bachman’s Gretsch, Rick James’ wild life story, a Lego Fender Princeton Reverb, and sick kitties.

Volts jolts, mills kills.

Price hikes - they’re happening folks.

This week we talk about the across the board gear inflation we’re seeing in both the both used and new market with brands like Gibson (including their new murdered out Raven series), Fender, Marshall, and Ibanez. What’s driving it? Is there any chance this will ease?

Also discussed: between two Balties with Balthazar Amps, Ringo Starr jamming with every drummer for Why Hunger, Lego collaborating with Fender, Johnny Ramone’s Mosrite, Nembrini Audio’s free RAT plugin, gear-centric video game The Artful Escape, Elliott Smith, Universal Audio’s new Volt series, and passing GAS with The Fart Pedal.

Facebook is down, down with Facebook.

New (old) Bass Day!

Dave got himself a super cool vintage bass and you know that means we’ve gotta talk about it. This week we dig into the details of this fretless Japanese beauty and explore that world in general with our 5 top tips for getting into fretless.

Also discussed: Yngwie Malmsteen’s blindfold test, new Gibson acoustic guitars with something called a player port, Radiohead’s video game, catching up with our friends at Balthazar Amps, Jon Nunez from Torche and Sound Artillery Studio getting into Universal Audio’s Luna, Greyhawk using Dave Grohl’s throne, getting too high for Guitar Center, Steve Howe rocking the Line 6 Spider, and The Flaming Lips’ Fearless Freaks.

Big ole hunk’a beef in our mouths.